Sharp rise in officers killed in the line of duty in first half of 2014

From left to right, this panorama image shows fallen LAPD officers Nicholas Lee, Christopher Cortijo, Ernest L. Allen Sr. and Roberto Sanchez. These officers were killed in traffic-related crashes between March and May of 2014. Lee, Cortijo and Sanchez were killed in the line of duty. Allen was off duty.

Pallbearers carry the casket of LAPD Officer Nicholas Lee during his funeral procession at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, CA March 13, 2014. Nicholas Lee was killed when the driver of a truck apparently lost control of his vehicle and struck Lee's police car, officials said.(Andy Holzman/Los Angeles Daily News)

Thirty-one percent more law enforcement officers in the country were killed in the line of duty in the first half of 2014 compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Sixty-seven law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in the first six months of the year, compared with 51 officers killed in the same period last year, the data released Tuesday said.

“Last year, we had 100 fatalities for officers in the entire year across the country — that was the lowest number since 1994 — so that makes these numbers more alarming when we are seeing some nice trending downward,” said Craig W. Floyd, the Memorial Fund’s chairman and CEO..

California saw the most law enforcement officers killed in those six months, with eight fatalities that included six traffic-related and two firearm deaths. Florida, New York, Texas and Virginia had the second highest number with each losing four officers.

The Los Angeles Police Department lost three officers who were on-duty in the first half of the year — all traffic-related. Before then, the department hadn’t lost an officer on duty since one was fatally shot in 2008.

“What it means is that police work — no matter how good the training, no matter how good the equipment, no matter what advances we make — is still incredibly dangerous,” said Tyler Izen, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League. “Frankly, our society is mobile. The fact that we’ve had such an increase in deaths from car collisions isn’t a big surprise.”

In March, Officer Nicholas Lee was killed when an out-of-control dump truck on windy Loma Vista Drive in Beverly Hills struck his patrol car as he responded to a call. Motorcycle Officer Christopher Cortijo, while on DUI watch in April, was struck from behind by an allegedly drug-impaired driver and succumbed to his injuries four days later. In May, Officer Roberto Sanchez was killed and his partner seriously injured when a driver of an SUV allegedly intentionally slammed into their police cruiser as the officers pursued another vehicle in Harbor City.

A fourth LAPD officer, Detective Ernest L. Allen Sr., was off duty when his personal car was struck by a large cement truck also on Loma Vista Drive, resulting in his death.

“We have to be cautious of drivers ... All those deaths of LAPD officers were really unavoidable” on the part of the officer, said LAPD Detective Tracy McClanahan, a department spokeswoman. “The officers are out there doing their jobs and they got hit by a driver.”

But Floyd, of the Memorial Fund, said that in general more and better driver training for officers, as well as policies that would discourage officers from driving at unsafe speeds for the conditions, could help reduce officer deaths.

Advertisement

“We see officers get twice as much firearm training as driver training,” he said.

Each LAPD officer goes through four hours of driver training and four hours of firearm training each year, McClanahan said. Officers must qualify to use their firearm every other month, a process that can result in additional training if needed. Officers in collisions determined to have been avoidable on the part of the officer also go through additional driver training, she said.

The other officer deaths in the state in 2014 included a Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department deputy who was fatally shot in a standoff in March, two California Highway Patrol officers killed in a solo car crash on Highway 99 near Kingsburg and a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer who was fatally shot while conducting a probation search.